PUTATAN: The Sabah Government has been urged to take immediate action to deal with flash floods in the district that affected several schools, including Sekolah Kebangsaan (SK) Tombovo, and nearby villages, on Monday.
Petagas Assemblyman Datuk Awang Ahmad Sah (pic) said flash floods in the area were not a new phenomenon as the schools involved faced the same problem each time it rained continuously due to the clogged drainage system.
“The Government needs to find short-term measures to prevent flash floods from occurring. The ditches behind the schools are the cause of flash floods, so these ditches need to be dug (deeper) so that they do not fill up quickly and overflow (causing flash floods) in the school areas,” he said in a statement, Monday.
Awang Ahmad, who is also Parti Warisan Information Chief, said this when commenting on photographs and videos of the schools that went viral on social media Monday after the flash floods caused difficulties for teachers and students.
He also said he understood the flash flood situation in the area would come to an end when the Putatan Phase 3 Flood Mitigation project, worth more than RM400 million, is completed.
He did not deny that flash floods occurred in several villages in the district due to the construction work for a sewerage scheme project, which has been going on for the past few months, blocked the flow of water to Sungai Lembising and, subsequently, to the sea.
According to him, this has affected more than 5,000 villagers, while road users had also complained of bad road conditions since the project began.
